Getting network to work
 

I just installed slack and the network dosent work. I tried to fix it on my own, and I have lots of information, but I cant figure out where to go next. Hopefully somebody will be able to point me in the right direction.

I have a relativly new pcmcia ethernet card for a laptop. when I boot, the lights on the network indicator go on, but 'ping 192.168.1.101' returns 'connect: Network is unreachable'.

I ran 'cardctl ident' and got the following:

Socket 0:
product info: "Network Everywhere", "Fast Ethernet 10/100 PC Card, "3.0", "AX88190"
manfid: 0x0149, 0xc1ab
function: 6 (network)

At boot I get the following:

pcnet_cs: this is an AX88190 card!
pcnet_cs: use axnet_cs instead
pcnet_cs: unable to read hardware net address for io base 0x300

I tried running 'modprobe axnet_cs' and it seemed to work, as no errors were returned, but I still cannot ping anything. I also added '/sbin/modprobe axnet_cs' to /etc/rc.d/rc.modules under the network section, but I get the same message from pcnet_cs at boot.

I read this in the axnet_cs man pages online:
"Axnet_cs is a driver for PCMCIA ethernet cards based on the Asix
AX88190 chipset. These cards are mostly NE2000 compatible but have
several bugs that are sufficiently tricky to work around that a sepa-
rate driver was deemed necessary. When this driver is bound to a card,
it allocates the next available ethernet device (eth0..eth#). This
device name will be reported in the kernel log file, and passed on to
cardmgr(8)."

So I tried running 'modprobe ne io=0x280' and also tried 280, 320, 340, and 360 as possible io addresses

I believe what I need to do is stop pcnet_cs from running at boot and start axnet_cs, but I do not know how. Please offer any suggestions you may have, or point me to a thread or website that may be helpful.

Thanks in advance,
LBB

Well, what you need to do after "modprobe axnet_cs" is to configure your ethernet card. Without an IP you can't ping anything.

Use "ifconfig -a" to list all of the unconfigured ethernet devices. If this is your only ethernet card, it should be eth0. Then, if you're using DHCP on your network, run your dhcp client on eth#. (this can be any number of things: dhcpcd, pump, dhcpc, dhcp-client) Now, when you run ifconfig you should see eth# listed with an ipaddress.

If you aren't using dhcp, you'll need to specify the correct settings:
ifconfig eth# up 555.555.555.555 netmask 555.555.555.0 gw 555.555.555.1

Either way, you'll want to use your distribution's network config tool to make sure the ethernet card is setup properly all the time.

As for pcmcia-cs loading the wrong driver, apparently there are files in /etc/pcmcia/ that give card ID#'s and what driver should be loaded for that card. Back up that file (in case you buy a new card that needs the other driver) and change the entries for your card to the correct driver.

ifconfig -a returns:

lo Link encap:Local loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX Packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX Packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen
RX bytes:1280 (1.2 Kb) TX bytes:1280 (1.2 Kb)

I dont see any mention of eth0.

Like I said before, I am using slackware, so there Is no network configuration tool with the distribution, it has to be done manually.

Also: 'ifconfig eth0' returns 'etho: error fetching interface information: Device not found

How can I enable eth0?

In /etc/pcmcia there is a file called config.opts, and I added a line there that says 'module "axnet_cs"' and rebooted, but still getting the same error. I dont see pcnet_cs in that file at all.
Thanks for your help

For anyone interested in what I did to solve this here it is:

I just opened up config (the c++ file) and config.opts in /etc/pcmcia and did a replace in kedit to replace any instance on pcnet_cs with axnet_cs. rebooted and the network worked. It's a bit crude, but it worked

alright so this is the exact eror I am getting and i have no idea how to run the fix you stated below

" just opened up config (the c++ file) and config.opts in /etc/pcmcia and did a replace in kedit to replace any instance on pcnet_cs with axnet_cs. rebooted and the network worked. It's a bit crude, but it worked"

can you :newbie: that down for me :D

I appreciate it thanks

alright i figured it out but for my own refference if i figure which card is mine and jsut edit that one is should be good right ?